The Roman goddess aurora was goddess of dawn – the new day. She was daughter
of the titan Hyperion and would wake before day break and fly across the skies
to announce the coming of the morning and the sun. Her brother and sister were
the sun (the deity Sol) and moon (the goddess Luna). Her children
were the four winds.

In ancient Rome she was considered as one and the same with the Latin goddess
Mater Matuta who’s temple, consecrated by Romulus (founder of Rome) himself. It
stood on the forum Boarium. Her dedicated feast was known as the "Matralia"
on the 11th June to which only Roman citizen virgins or women who had
only been married once and whose husband still lived, were admitted. In line
with the goddesses’ nature, the feast celebrated the coming dawn of the longest
day in the year (summer solstice 21st June), thus the Matralia was
essentially the feast to celebrate the dawn of the second half of the year.

Mater Matuta was soon identified with the Greek Ino, sister of Semele, mother
of Dionysus – Roman god Bacchus. This is an important detail because Ino
supposedly threw herself into the sea with her son and returned as a marine
divinity. On returning to land she was welcomed by Hercules.... at the forum
Boarium.

Firstly we should remember that the Forum Boarium was, as the name
suggests, a Forum: a market. It was dedicated to banking and the meat trade. It
was situated by the port on the river Tiber, ie where trade and commerce would
have come from abroad or inland.

Hercules was there because his great altar had always been there and he
was divinity closely associated with oaths and contracts (as was his
Latin/Sabine alter ego, Semo Sancus). Tradition suggested that it was
here that Hercules had had a misadventure with the giant Cacus who’d tried to
steal his cattle (note the forum Boarium dealt with cattle and meat).
Portunus was there because he was divinity in charge of doors and ports
(hence Portunus-port).

As we have suggested above, Mater Matuta was also there (as was Fortuna). She
was deity in charge of motherhood, navigation and commerce: together with
Hercules and Portunus she was one of the three divinities of ports and
warehousing.

So there we have it: Dawn – Motherhood – Commerce – Navigation and a strong
association with her twin, Fortune.

Excavations under the area of the church of Saint Omobono have identified an
area which was sacred since the end of the 7th Century BC and the
construction of the first archaic temple coincides with the reign of king
Servius Tullus. During that same reign modifications were made so that two twin
temples stood on the same stone base – one to Mater Matuta and the other to the
goddess Fortuna (fortune) who by tradition was lover and advisor of the king.
The temples were destroyed during the 6th century BC at about the
time when the Etruscan monarchy of Rome fell (Tarquin the Proud was
deposed) but rebuilt later.